He did an analysis of Portland that had this nugget relevant to the Pelicans.

quote:In the last 10 years, only 32 teams have made the postseason while ranking 16th or worse in points allowed per possession. Most of those teams — 20 of 32 — compensated with a top-five offense, and 25 of 32 sported top-10 overall offenses. The seven exceptions — the teams that made the playoffs despite being mediocre or worse on both ends — all played in the Eastern Conference during its prolonged nadir.

quote:The Pelicans' defense needs to make a HUGE jump if the team is going to make the playoffs.

i think it will be like the saints. it's hard to be worse than they were last year, so you will see a pretty decent improvement with the new personnel. i think the only position you see a slight downgrade at defensively will be center, but you'll have AD playing there down the stretch. the rest are pretty solid upgrades.

The change from Vasquez to Holiday should bump us up a few spots alone. Thats without adding in another year of work to Davis and Aminu, replacing a lot of Roberts and Masons minutes with Reke, and a (hopefully) healthy and motivated Gordon. We really should make a substantial jump on defense IMO.